Hardened Heart
by DreamingWithMyEyesWideOpen
Summary: Alexia Rose, a demi-god, has learned never to trust anyone. But as her mother sends her to boarding school with her 'step-brother,' Nico, will she learn to break her self-immposed rule? Can this child of Hades melt Alex's hardened heart? Nico/OC Alico


**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any of Rick Riordan's characters. I wish I did but sadly...**

Alexia Rose POV

"Boarding School!" I screeched, my head still reeling from the turn that the innocent conversation had taken. I love the underworld, it's the only part of this demi-god bullshit that I actually like, and now and have to move in to some stupid boarding school. I knew there was no arguing, when Mother and and Hades make a choice, it's to be followed, no questions asked. But that didn't mean that I wouldn't go down kicking and screaming."What did I do? Is Charon complaining again? It's not my fault he's cranky from loading dead souls century after century," I reasoned.

"Alexia, please don't make a scene. This is not only for others - though they are still a little mad from when you released an entire boat of souls loose in the underworld - it's also for you own welfare, if you stay locked up in this palace your entire childhood, you're never going to get out there and experience new and different things. You never know when the ability to explore the world will be taken from you," my mom said, her violet eyes gleaming.

"It was just one little boat, they caught most of them before the week was over anyways. Damn, how long can they hold a grudge? As for the new and different things, if I learned anything over the last year, it's that I have no real home. I make do with what I do have and then as soon as the underworld starts to feel like home, or at least something similar to it, you drop the boarding school bomb in me, how is that fair?" I asked, eyes pleading with hers.

"I'm sorry, Alexia, but Hades and I already talked about it. You will go to camp half-blood for the remainder of the summer and when school starts, you are going to the school with a guardian of our choosing,"she said, willing with her eyes to understand - I didn't.

"Mother, please, be reasonable," I pleaded, my hopes falling dramatically when she reached out and brushed my hair out of my face. She only ever plays with my hair when I'm about to get bad news. She braided my hair - Aunty Jenna, my only living relative, died in a car accident. She brushed it out - I was forced to move my room from my old one near the garden to this dark and dreary one. She curled my hair - I was banned from visiting Charon anymore. This is worse than I thought.

"I'm sorry, my dear sweet Rose, but after the incident last week, Hades is getting a little jumpy. He thinks he won't be respected because of the trouble your causing. It's decided, Hades said he had the perfect guardian for you and he's going to tell me today. You have two days to pack and then we'll be sending you and your guardian to camp," my mother said, eyes unyielding, "It'll all work out." I snapped.

"Bullshit, mom. How can you sleep at night? I'm honestly, if not morbidly, curious how you live with yourself when you take a child, _your child, _out of her normal and healthy lifestyle, throw her into a realitively unknown world, and, once she started to feel secure, you ship her out to another unknown place. How do you look in the mirror and still see what you want to?"

Mother's eyes started to blaze, as she stood up to her full height, "Alexia Rose, you are, under any circumstances, never allowed to speak to me in that tone. I may not have made all of the best choices according to you but I'm still you mother. You are going. End of discussion."

She stalked to the door and looked back to see the utter defeat in my expression. Her eyes softened considerably, "Alexia, I'll see if I could arrange for your guardian to be someone closer to your age, mabye a trained demi-god,"she said, sweeping out of my room and into the main hallway.

"It's Alex," I whispered to an empty room. I turned away from the door and looked for the closest object nearby, a book. I was about to hurl it at the wall, but then I read the title, _The Art of War_. I wanted to keep that for future purposes so I looked around for something of little value to me at the moment, my eyes landed on the picture frame resting by the side of my bed. I clutched it and hurled it across the room without a second thought.

The glass shattered on my black wall with a loud crash and the picture it was holding slipped out. Me and the Goddess Persephone. Engraved in the back of the colorful frame, it said_ A Mother and her Only Child. _Mother got it for me when she first claimed me right after the war with Kronos last year. Whenever I asked why she waited so long to claim me, she always says that she fear what knowing would do to my life, but I know the real reason: she was worried about what Hades would think. She plays the whole poor-innocent-me act but all along she was always wishing for his approval.

There are only to reasons why she even claimed me now: The gods oath to Percy, and my father's death. My dad was a scientist in Florida when he died. The official report said that a huge dog jumped into the woods and my dad swerved off a nearby cliff to aviod it. I have my suspicions.

I heard a door slamming from the room next door and I mentally rolled my eyes. _Fan-freaking-tastic._ Nico di Angelo, as if my want to throw my self off my second story window wasn't strong enough.

_There was a very slim, one-in-a-million chance that he needed to talk to me. Was luck on my side? Hades no_, I thought as I heard a knock on the door. _Here we go again._

**I'm sorry I haven't updated on Unexpected Surprise or Daughter of Poseidon, Son of Hades, and Trouble yet but my computer is acting all stupid and won't let me. I already had this downloaded so I decided to post it already. Updates on my other stories should be coming in the next week of so. Should I continue this story? Tell me with that pretty little button.**

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**P.S: Look out for my new Maximum Ride story, coming soon...**


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